Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluid spray nozzles. More particularly, this invention relates to modular dual vector fluid spray nozzles useful for any kind of fluid spraying application, e.g., and not by way of limitation, snowmaking, fire-suppression, fire-fighting, paint and solvent spraying.
Description of Related Art
Nozzles for converting fluids, such as water, under pressure into atomized mists, or plumes of vapor, are well known in the art. Nozzles find use in many applications, for example, irrigation, landscape watering, fire-fighting, and even solvent and paint spraying. Nozzles are also used in snowmaking equipment to provide atomized mists of water droplets of a size suitable for projection through a cold atmosphere to be frozen into snow for artificial snowmaking at ski resorts. Conventional nozzles are known to provide fluid mist jets of a particular shape of spray pattern, for example conical mist spray patterns are commonly used for garden hose nozzles. Nozzles that provide a flat jet (fan shaped) have proved particularly useful with regard to snowmaking, fire-fighting and irrigation. However, the density of spray achieved by flat jet nozzles is largely along a plane formed by the orifice and direction of trajectory, thus limiting the fluid density along directions away from this plane of trajectory.
There is a need for improved fluid spray nozzles having fluid trajectories in cross-planes. It would also be useful to have such improved nozzles that are modular without moving parts for ease of servicing and replacement within a fluid spray system. Such improved nozzles may provide greater control over the following nozzle spray variables: fluid flow rate, droplet size formed at ejection orifice, spray pattern and spray angle.